RiverSideBySide is Boro’s club-wide commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Tonight is our first RiverSideBySide matchday of the season, where we highlight our EDI success stories – and this time, the specific focus is Race.
Here we chat to former midfielder Toumani Diagouraga, a veteran of more than 500 EFL appearances with the likes of Brentford, Leeds United and Ipswich Town, who has now joined Boro’s Category One Academy as part of a scheme to encourage more Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic ex-players into coaching.
May 2015, and Toumani Diagouraga is running out at the Riverside for one of the biggest matches of his career. Brentford, for whom he has become a mainstay in midfield, are one game from Wembley Stadium, and two from a fairytale first-ever promotion to the Premier League. But it won’t be easy – standing in their way are a formidable Middlesbrough side, being roared on by a red-hot Riverside atmosphere.
As our fans will remember, it was the Boro, not the Bees, who were celebrating as the full-time whistle sounded – nevertheless, it’s a memory that sticks with Toumani. Fast-forward eight years, and he is now on the Boro books as a coach, helping to inspire the next generation on their own journeys into the professional game.
“I remember it really well. I think Middlesbrough were the one team we didn’t want to play in the play-offs! It was still a very good experience. It’s funny how life works sometimes, I don’t think I saw it coming full circle and coming back to Middlesbrough.
“But that’s the experience I want to pass it on to the next generation. I’ve played at the Riverside, I’ve had ups and downs where I’m not playing or a manager doesn’t like me. Sometimes it’s understanding it’s not all going to be plain sailing, it’s how you pick yourself back up and come through it.”
The Paris-born 36-year-old, who now lives in Harrogate, applied and joined Boro’s Academy as part of the Professional Player to Coach Scheme, a joint venture from the PFA, Premier League and EFL. First set up in 2020/21, the scheme provides up to six coaches per season from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background with a 23-month intensive work placement at an EFL club, honing their craft in a professional environment.
Toumani could have kept playing in the summer, but says this opportunity proved too good to ignore.
“I had offers to continue playing, but for the last two or three years I’ve known I wanted to go down the coaching route. I went through all the processes, all the interviews, and once I was offered this role, to me it was a no-brainer. The opportunity to come and coach and learn at a really good club, everything was perfect.
“I feel very grateful for this opportunity, it’s so difficult and competitive to get in to. Would I have struggled without this scheme? Probably. It’s just good to have that chance to level up and learn, and Middlesbrough opening their doors for me to come and to work here.”
On the scheme, Toumani has an individualised learning and development programme which takes in several aspects of Academy life, such as physical performance and conditioning, recruitment, analysis, administration as well as coaching. Currently, his specific focus is one-to-one player development.
“It’s a real mix, at the moment I’ve been doing individual development between the Under-14s and Under-18s. I’m getting to know the players, watching a lot of clips, and deciding with the other coaches what they need and how we can help them improve.”
There’s a lot of life experience I can share, and hopefully that can motivate and inspire the young players to keep pushing.
Toumani Diagouraga
The diversity profile within Boro’s Academy is ever-broadening, and youngsters progressing through our ranks are headhunted from far and wide. The likes of Djed Spence, Sam Folarin and Isaiah Jones, for instance, joined from London clubs, while a player like Billal Brahimi, now of Nice, was French-born to an Algerian family, and signed from Portuguese club Leixões before making his professional debut on Teesside. Toumani believes his own experiences can help him guide such youngsters.
“At 16 I had to move country, and I didn’t speak the language. I can understand that side of it, it’s not easy leaving family and friends behind. There’s a lot of life experience I can share, and the players can appreciate I’m not just saying things for the sake of it, I’m talking about something I’ve lived through myself. Hopefully that can motivate and inspire the young players to keep pushing.
“It’s hard to aspire to something when you can’t see it happening so I think it’s a good thing to have diversity in coaching, and that we keep showing the next generation what they can do.
“When you look at how well the Middlesbrough Academy has done over the years, the facilities it has – there’s no better place to learn for me than this kind of environment, and hopefully I can make the most of it.”